Bangkok: Thailand police have arrested former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh's assassin Jagtar Singh 'Tara' on Monday. "We arrested fugitive convict Gurmeet Singh in Pattaya after monitoring his movements for several months and with the help of police in India," Royal Thai Police spokesman Police Lieutenant General Prawut Thavornsiri said.

Jagtar Singh Tara also known as Gurmeet Singh, a former member of the Babbar Khalsa International Sikh separatist group, was jailed for life in 2007 for his involvement in the 1995 attack outside a government complex in Chandigarh in which more than 18 people, including the then-chief minister of Punjab.

A bomb planted in Beant Singh's car exploded killing then chief minister and 17 others, including aides and members of his security detail. Singh was one of six militants convicted in connection with the blast.

He and three others escaped a high-security prison in India in 2004. Singh entered Thailand in October, police said, and was arrested in the seaside town of Pattaya, east of the capital Bangkok, on Monday. Police was seeking permission from Thailand's Supreme Court to extradite Singh. The plan is to send him back to India," he added.